The Theft of Ground Zero

The most egregious aspect of the Ground Zero mosque controversy is something that people don't think or talk about: the incalculable theft involved in this second wave of the 9/11 attacks. These Islamic supremacists are grifting the system big time. And yet the biggest theft of all is one that everyone has overlooked.

The biggest theft of all is that they have stolen Ground Zero itself from America like thieves in the night. They have ripped it from our collective soul and national psyche.

Now, whenever anyone mentions Ground Zero, it has nothing to do with the largest attack ever on American soil. Whenever anyone speaks about Ground Zero now, it is never about the thousands of lives lost that day. It is never about the hundreds who jumped to their deaths because the alternative was worse. It is never about the horrified, terrified people on the planes who watched in indescribable horror as they crashed into these buildings to the wail of Allahu akbar.

Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan have stolen Ground Zero. They have kidnapped it. Hijacked it. Before these heartless Islamic supremacists declared their stealth jihad, Ground Zero was like Pearl Harbor or Antietam or Gettysburg: the site of a catastrophic loss of life through an unprecedented act of war. Ground Zero was the site of the largest attack on American soil in our history. Ground Zero was where we would mourn our dead. Ground Zero was where moms, dads, aunts, uncles, kids, construction workers, stockbrokers, waiters, postmen, and other ordinary Americans became the infantry -- soldiers without uniforms. Ground Zero was hallowed ground.

But no more. Not since these raiders came in the dark of night with their fifteen-story mega-mosque. They have succeeded in stealing our memory, our cherished remembrance of that horrible day. They stole Ground Zero. Before the advent of Daisy Khan and Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ground Zero was just that: it was September 11. But now Ground Zero is all about a mosque. It has morphed (like the Ground Zero mosque controversy itself) into an angst-ridden conflict about insensitivity toward Muslims, "backlash" against Muslims, and American attitudes toward Islam.

Now, Ground Zero is all about the earnest, unctuous, smug, and deceitful faces of Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan, and about their concern over imaginary "Islamophobia."

Remember also that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has been unmasked as a New Jersey slumlord. He just had his slum buildings placed in receivership despite getting taxpayer dollars to makerepairs. Rauf snagged more than $2 million in public financing to renovate low-income apartments; he kept the money and never made the repairs. He took the money and forced good people to live with vermin and in dilapidated conditions.

Yet not once did any American media outlet ask him where all that money went.

There is more. Rauf and his wife Daisy listed their one-bedroom apartment as a mosque in order to conduct what appears to amount to tax fraud. Rauf sought "church status" -- to avoid paying taxes. He got the wildly valuable tax-exempt status for his Muslim organization after deceiving the IRS by claiming that as many as five hundred of its members prayed in that tiny one-bedroom apartment (which was also listed as Daisy's residence).

The language of morality is in such grave disorder today that it is Daisy Khan and Feisal Abdul Rauf who are lauded and venerated, revered, and respected, despite their long record of dishonesty and deceit. Rauf is even a nominee for Time Magazine's Person of the Year, while those few who dare speak about the real meaning of Ground Zero and why it disrespectful and dishonorable to build a giant mosque there are kicked to the curb like so much rubble -- to paraphrase Rauf's description of the human remains at the World Trade Center.

How dare they?

How dare they steal our children and our parents and our loved ones, those we lost on 9/11, from us?

And why haven't our political elites and our media shamed them into crawling back under the rock from which they emerged?

This is why we have to keep the heat on. On Tuesday, my colleague Robert Spencer and other patriots will be with me in front the New York City Council, which is holding a hearing to ban Walmart from New York on their self-declared Hate Walmart day -- all the while doing nothing to stand against the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mega-mosque, or to take away the roadblocks preventing reconstruction of St. Nicholas Church, which destroyed in the 9/11 attack. No to a church and Wal-Mart, but yes to a mega-mosque at Ground Zero? The hypocrisy and inconsistency are stunning.

The Islamic jihadists have not surrendered. They have not apologized. They have not made recompense. They're still waging war on us. And now the Islamic supremacist deceivers Rauf and Khan have stolen Ground Zero, and we want it back.

The most egregious aspect of the Ground Zero mosque controversy is something that people don't think or talk about: the incalculable theft involved in this second wave of the 9/11 attacks. These Islamic supremacists are grifting the system big time. And yet the biggest theft of all is one that everyone has overlooked.

The biggest theft of all is that they have stolen Ground Zero itself from America like thieves in the night. They have ripped it from our collective soul and national psyche.

Now, whenever anyone mentions Ground Zero, it has nothing to do with the largest attack ever on American soil. Whenever anyone speaks about Ground Zero now, it is never about the thousands of lives lost that day. It is never about the hundreds who jumped to their deaths because the alternative was worse. It is never about the horrified, terrified people on the planes who watched in indescribable horror as they crashed into these buildings to the wail of Allahu akbar.

Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan have stolen Ground Zero. They have kidnapped it. Hijacked it. Before these heartless Islamic supremacists declared their stealth jihad, Ground Zero was like Pearl Harbor or Antietam or Gettysburg: the site of a catastrophic loss of life through an unprecedented act of war. Ground Zero was the site of the largest attack on American soil in our history. Ground Zero was where we would mourn our dead. Ground Zero was where moms, dads, aunts, uncles, kids, construction workers, stockbrokers, waiters, postmen, and other ordinary Americans became the infantry -- soldiers without uniforms. Ground Zero was hallowed ground.

But no more. Not since these raiders came in the dark of night with their fifteen-story mega-mosque. They have succeeded in stealing our memory, our cherished remembrance of that horrible day. They stole Ground Zero. Before the advent of Daisy Khan and Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ground Zero was just that: it was September 11. But now Ground Zero is all about a mosque. It has morphed (like the Ground Zero mosque controversy itself) into an angst-ridden conflict about insensitivity toward Muslims, "backlash" against Muslims, and American attitudes toward Islam.

Now, Ground Zero is all about the earnest, unctuous, smug, and deceitful faces of Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan, and about their concern over imaginary "Islamophobia."

Remember also that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has been unmasked as a New Jersey slumlord. He just had his slum buildings placed in receivership despite getting taxpayer dollars to makerepairs. Rauf snagged more than $2 million in public financing to renovate low-income apartments; he kept the money and never made the repairs. He took the money and forced good people to live with vermin and in dilapidated conditions.

Yet not once did any American media outlet ask him where all that money went.

There is more. Rauf and his wife Daisy listed their one-bedroom apartment as a mosque in order to conduct what appears to amount to tax fraud. Rauf sought "church status" -- to avoid paying taxes. He got the wildly valuable tax-exempt status for his Muslim organization after deceiving the IRS by claiming that as many as five hundred of its members prayed in that tiny one-bedroom apartment (which was also listed as Daisy's residence).

The language of morality is in such grave disorder today that it is Daisy Khan and Feisal Abdul Rauf who are lauded and venerated, revered, and respected, despite their long record of dishonesty and deceit. Rauf is even a nominee for Time Magazine's Person of the Year, while those few who dare speak about the real meaning of Ground Zero and why it disrespectful and dishonorable to build a giant mosque there are kicked to the curb like so much rubble -- to paraphrase Rauf's description of the human remains at the World Trade Center.

How dare they?

How dare they steal our children and our parents and our loved ones, those we lost on 9/11, from us?

And why haven't our political elites and our media shamed them into crawling back under the rock from which they emerged?

This is why we have to keep the heat on. On Tuesday, my colleague Robert Spencer and other patriots will be with me in front the New York City Council, which is holding a hearing to ban Walmart from New York on their self-declared Hate Walmart day -- all the while doing nothing to stand against the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mega-mosque, or to take away the roadblocks preventing reconstruction of St. Nicholas Church, which destroyed in the 9/11 attack. No to a church and Wal-Mart, but yes to a mega-mosque at Ground Zero? The hypocrisy and inconsistency are stunning.

The Islamic jihadists have not surrendered. They have not apologized. They have not made recompense. They're still waging war on us. And now the Islamic supremacist deceivers Rauf and Khan have stolen Ground Zero, and we want it back.